Near Miss of the Day 669: Cyclist confronts driver after 'worst overtake I've ever seen'

matt_cycles wrote:

Garage at Large wrote:

Cycologist wrote:

You're serious? You think your description demonstrates careless driving? Bizarre...

I can only write what I see. The cyclist was careless because he moved towards the car which was already overtaking. We don't see how long this brinkmanship was going on for before the start of the clip - would be good to see when the mini first approached the cyclist

Hang on, how do you know the cyclist saw the car behind them? If the cyclist never saw the car then your arguement is flawed. The car was also tailgating on the rear camera video and not leaving a 2 second gap to the vehicle (in this case a bike) in front of it.

Herr Garage doesn't really do argument, more of a taunt. In a long proud tradition from Georgeous George ("A lot of people will pay to see someone shut your mouth.").

He may be serious, but he's certainly clueless.

Stop

Feeding

The

Troll

Zebulebu wrote:

Stop

Feeding

The

Troll

Don't Trolls have feelings? Prehaps he sees himself as having very little of value in his life, and therefore, uses these forums to gain a sense of power and importance inorder to prop-up his low self-esteem, or, may be not? Who knows. 🙂

Exactly. It's called secondary gain. Do not respond

lesterama wrote:

Exactly. It's called secondary gain. Do not respond

To be fair, if he is pathologically 'trolling' it's likely there's a number of psychological phenomena at play. :-;

I'm hopeful you're the type of troll that has refused vaccinations and natural selection will run its course.

Garage at Large wrote:

The cyclist also moves *towards* the car as he overtakes, check the footage.

The front view does suggest that , however the rear view tells a different story with the rider appearing to move to the left and then back to right, probably in panic at the car virtually on his rear wheel.

Original poster hear. I certainly don't remember moving off line intentionally, but i certainly had a real fright when he started to overtake, I thought there was no room for me and the car and I was going to be hit.

I 'talk' to plenty of people online or while not cycling (e.g. in pub) who proclaim they have never had any issues while cycling from cars and therefore that all issues must be due to the cyclists behaviour.

I have yet to ever meet anyone while cycling (or at cycling cafes, work, random strangers with interesting cargo bikes etc) who hasn't had regular issues while cycling with aggressive/dangerous driving...

So it is only the people with no evidence they actually go for rides who don't have issues... Funny that...

You stopped for ten seconds in one hour? No junctions, red lights etc? Seems about as believable as your indoor trainer stats.

We don't all live in London Rendel.

Here's one of my recent rides, can't quite match Nige's average speed mind.

Garage at Large wrote:

Rendel Harris wrote:

You stopped for ten seconds in one hour? No junctions, red lights etc? Seems about as believable as your indoor trainer stats.

This is going to blow your mind, but there isn't a single set of traffic lights on any of my normal routes. There are a few junctions, but there's rarely any traffic at them, being semi rural.

Lucky you! Actually many of my journeys don't feature any lights for a fair distance either and I live in a city (in the north which turns out to be fortunate).

Apparently cyclists of all types and speeds quite appreciate this. Stopping and starting on a bike is an energy drain and you can also get cold waiting at a stop. Prioritising bikes at junctions or even better avoiding traffic lights altogether definitely makes cycling a more attractive option. After all traffic lights are motor vehicle infrastructure and are not needed for other modes *.

* Well, there are rail crossings but it's a good idea to entirely separate people from railways with underpasses or bridges anyway. Signalised pedestrian crossings are also motor vehicle infrastructure - needed because it's not safe because of the vehicles. Even in the busiest cycle tracks it's possible to get pedestrians where they want to go. (This video appears to have signals on the cycle path at one point but I think that they are for the whole road - there are bus lanes).

Garage at Large wrote:

Rendel Harris wrote:

This is going to blow your mind, but there isn't a single set of traffic lights on any of my normal routes. There are a few junctions, but there's rarely any traffic at them, being semi rural.

Well, I've been riding the narrow lanes of (mainly) Surrey, Kent and Sussex nigh-on forty years now and I reckon I could count on one hand the number of rides where I haven't stopped multiple times either to let drivers behind through or to cede to oncoming drivers. Obviously I simply adhere to a rather higher standard of courtesy and empathy than yourself.

There We Are Then.

Not bad stats, imagine the speeds he could do in a chain gang. Of course weird that in one hours cycling (22 miles or so) and stopping for cars on roads that need to get past, only 10 seconds of stoppages showing. I wonder how many red lights were sailed through as well. Myself cycling home tonight and only doing 7.5 miles had 1m 30s of stoppages.

It's really weird the way he keeps posting this nonsense, I think we've had pictures of his bike, power figure graphs, indoor trainer ride and several outdoor rides. It's almost as though he doth protest too much...

Maybe he secretly lives in the Netherlands (often long distances between lights / needing to slow) and is deriving intense schadenfreude by pitying the UK cyclist while pretending to be one?

Garage at Large wrote:

Pretty much every road around here is like that, and somehow I can manage to go for a ride and not get into these kind of confrontations. The motorist is correct, the cyclist should have moved to the left to let the driver pass at a safe distance, as any sensible cyclist would have done in the circumstance. The road wasn't so narrow to have to ride in primary to be defensive. Instead, the cyclist decided to ride centrally to make a statement: "Keep behind me, and if you dare try to overtake I'm going to have some great Youtube footage to send to the police and my followers!". The cyclist also moves *towards* the car as he overtakes, check the footage. If anyone should have got a warning letter, for me it would have been the cyclist for careless cycling and obstructing a public highway.

Some roads around here are like that, and somehow I can manage to go for a drive and not get into these kind of confrontations.

The cyclist is correct, the motorist should have waited until it was safe for the driver to pass at a safe distance, as any sensible driver would have done in the circumstance. The road was too narrow to pass safely at that point.

Instead, the driver decided to push past without consideration: "I’m going to get past regardless of how little room there is, and if you dare to confront me I’m going to demonstrate his superior to you I feel!". The driver doesn’t allow for can’t variation in the cyclist’s road position.

The warning letter was very much the least that should have been considered.

FTFY

The survey demonstrated nothing re psychopathy - it was complete and utter garbage. Utterly Spurious.

As for the overtaking in the vid, I can't see much room to the left of the rider - it was poor driving, imo.

A warning seems sensible.

Agree, a warning letter is a start, better than nothing and helps raise awareness regarding safe overtaking - public opinion seems to be shifting, slowly, towards greater road safety - from the limited data I've seen.

I live in the countryside and this is exactly how I ride, take up as much of the road as you can, ride primary and force those with an infernal combustion engine to slow down and wait for a safe place to pass. When that comes I always make a point of shouting a 'thank you' and giving a cheery wave especially if I don't mean it. As I may have said before, positive reinforcement works. 

Yep, Ive had similar experiences, I find most drivers very appreciative when I make room for them to get past.

maybe it differs in other areas, but I had at least 4 if not 5 instances of this today, one of which was a borderline close pass too, each time I rode as prime as I could because the roads are wet muddy full of slippery leaf mulch and rubbish trailed out of fields, and some of the roads around here actually the centre line isnt where you want to be, but I pulled over in to gaps at the first opportunity I could. and not one of the b*****s did so much as offer any thanks for it, and these were designated "quiet lanes" they arent roads people really use to get from A to B much.

I believe you. I have friends whos' experiences are considerably more similar to yours than mine.

I tend to ride in sparsely populated and low crime area and my experiences are relatively good with the vast majority of drivers.

Yesterday, for example, I didn't have a single incident involving poor driving. I had a fairly high performance car behind me for a few hundred meters (he wasn't tailgating), I was able to move over for him and let him past, he indicated his thanks with his hazards.

That said I think I only saw 10 cars, and most would have been 'local'.

I would guess your right re geographic location being a factor.